Oh Boy!

Photo: men.style.com

Scott Sternberg founded Band of Outsiders in January 2004. The former Hollywood agent began by re-cutting and re-contextualizing vintage fabrics to create classic menswear with hand-sewn seams, thoughtful detail, shrunken proportions and using, Sternberg recalls, "whatever I could afford without having to buy hundreds of meters of fabric." Ron Herman in L.A., Jeffrey in New York and Barneys subsequently bought the collection. From there, the limited-edition line has grown to include a full women's line called Boy. It's hot. Something about it reminds me of how Annie Hall might dress her daughter.

Band of Outsiders has a great west coast aesthetic (especially in his choices of fabric) that he pairs with a slimmer, more European, silhouette. The result is very chic and playful. I know the prepsters on the East Coast love his choices, but to me, there is a subtle cheeky west coast thing hidden in there–very subversive and very cool. A string of recent ads feature quirky actor Jason Schwartzman.

Photo: New Light Of Tomorrow

Sternberger cast actress Michelle Williams to model Boy's Fall 08 line. He took all the photos himself with a seventies-era Polaroid camera, set on capturing her informally and giving the shoot an "un-stylized" feel. This collection was said to be inspired by the Scottish countryside, it's at once romantic and rugged. I can't help drooling over Boy’s shrunken blazers, a simple yet sexy asymmetrical black dress, and Manolo Blahniks made especially for the collection.

Photos: Boy

He chose another blonde thespian, Kirsten Dunst, to be his lookbook model for Boy's Spring 09 collection. Kiki brings a carefree but cool style to the book, which shows her poised on her phone, smoking, and dancing in his designs.

At his show for New York Fashion Week, an ethereal soundtrack played loudly but did little to muffle the excited voices filling the room. Editors pawed looks from the new collections, which were on display and available for copping a feel on racks lining one wall. Draped across lit white boxes were partially transparent men's button-up shirts and track jackets. A film starring some of Sternberg's celebrity friends wearing his designs was featured instead of a catwalk. The reason? The designer told WWD: "I don’t make runway clothes. These are clothes you wear on the street, so I’m just super-uncomfortable with it. It puts it in totally the wrong context — I want to do something closer to where the clothes are, and let people actually touch and feel them as opposed to seeing them on a 14-year-old anorexic model."




I give huge kudos and medals of creativity to Sternberg for doing something altogether different and fun with his approach to showing his lines. I'm in love with his vision.